I investigated the pathological sensitivity of diffusion MRI in neuromodulatory systems of neurodegenerative diseases using combined in situ post-mortem MRI and immunohistochemistry. I completed four projects in this topic with the main focus in noradrenergic, dopaminergic and cholinergic systems in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease (AD and PD), connecting the dots between imaging biomarkers, neuropathology and neuromodulatory systems. I designed and planned the research set-up and performed… Show more I investigated the pathological sensitivity of diffusion MRI in neuromodulatory systems of neurodegenerative diseases using combined in situ post-mortem MRI and immunohistochemistry. I completed four projects in this topic with the main focus in noradrenergic, dopaminergic and cholinergic systems in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease (AD and PD), connecting the dots between imaging biomarkers, neuropathology and neuromodulatory systems. I designed and planned the research set-up and performed data collection, analysis, and interpretations. I also worked in collaborations with neurologists, radiologists, pathologists and psychiatrists at Amsterdam UMC, VUmc. These projects lead to four presentations at international scientific conferences and three main publications at international peer reviewed journals, in which I was the main writer and responder to rebuttals as well as corresponding author.I also worked on an international clinical trial project from CervoMed Inc. in Boston MA (former EIP Pharma Inc.), Amsterdam UMC and Alzheimer's Centrum Amsterdam. In this phase 2a clinical study, we investigated the treatment effects of neflamapimod on cholinergic neurons in the basal forebrain of AD patients, assessed by functional and structural MRI biomarkers. I have presented the preliminary results at AD/PD conference 2023.Besides the aforementioned five projects, I have supervised three master students in neuroscience for their thesis, and given brain imaging lectures in neuroscience master programs at Vrije University and Amsterdam University College 2020-2022. I have also mentored medical bachelor students in a neurology and psychiatry course 2021-2022.I was the chair of Cultuur team in the Department of Anatomy and Neurosciences 2021-2023. The goal was to maintain and prosper work culture at our department with a focus on understanding the needs, facilitating and strengthening communication and connections within and outside the department. Show less

• Organized and managed clinical database, analyzed imaging and clinical biomarkers in elderly for 2 research institutes.• Investigated cognitive reserve on default-mode network connectivity using structural and functional MRI.• Discovered cognitive reserve mediates both structural and functional connectivity of the default-mode network.

• Managed and executed 3 projects in cognitive, biochemistry, and imaging biomarkers for stroke and neurodegenerative diseases.• Responsible for regulatory and ethics submissions, as well as feasibility assessments.• Developed MR neuroimaging biomarkers for early Alzheimer's Disease diagnosis and investigated neuroperceptual mechanisms of vocal emotion expressions using MR neuroimaging and speech affective computing.

I worked as an intern at the Language and Brain lab. I investigated a linguistic property, aspectual coercion, focusing on the integration of semantic and syntactic information and the underlying brain substrates using functional MRI